Dialogue Editing

Essentials for Dialogue Editing 51
OMF to Match Final Picture You’ll need a complete OMF of all edited tracks
and any bonus audio material you expect to receive from the picture department.
Make sure the OMF version (the cut of the fi lm) matches the version
of the picture you’ll be working with. Label both the video and OMF with
the same version name.
Audio and Video EDLs The audio EDLs will be essential for fi nding alternate
takes. The video EDLs will be useful for confi rming changes, for making
perspective cuts, and for general housekeeping.
Original Recordings and Associated Sound Reports More and more fi lms
are recorded on hard-disk recorders. If such is the case with yours, you’ll
receive a hard drive (probably the same drive holding the OMF and EDLs)
with all of the original recordings. There may be DVD backups, too. If your
fi lm sound was recorded on DAT, you’ll receive a large box of tapes. However
the sound was recorded, you must receive the sound reports, the paperwork
that describes what’s on each tape (or in each day’s recording folder in the
case of hard-disk recording). You’ll use this paperwork to locate alternate
takes and wild sound.
List of Shooting Dates for Each Scene If your fi lm was recorded on a harddisk
recorder, the soundfi les are likely stored in folders identifi ed by the shoot
date. A table correlating scene numbers with shooting dates will save many
headaches.
Lined Script The lined script from the shoot is used for locating material
and revealing coverage within each scene. It gets its name from the vertical
lines drawn over the text, indicating which takes cover each part of the
script.
That’s it for the essentials. You absolutely must have them before starting.
Missing any at this point spells trouble down the line, and a production that
can’t provide these key elements is going to cause you heartache. Other
elements, although not life or death in importance, are nonetheless worth
asking for.
A list of characters and actors. Sooner or later you’ll learn the character
names and the actors playing those roles, but with this list in hand
you can start naming regions and making ADR calls without too
many phone calls to the production offi ce.